First day jitters!

Tomorrow begins the first day of second semester and also the first day of my intern teacher’s 10 week lead teach. I have every confidence in her, but I also remember how nervous I felt 16 years ago when i was in her shoes! I just want to do justice to such a promising young teacher and be a great mentor teacher! I also am not sure how I feel about the 4 hours a day I will need to occupy myself with something other than teaching! Knit? Cross stitch? Write a book? Pinterest and twitter? Now we’re talkin’!

One challenge we face is we have a group of about 30 students who have been in Spanish 1 since September with us, most of whom are staying in one hour, but several are scattering throughout the day. Then, we have another 90 or so kids who took 1 semester of Spanish a YEAR AGO at the junior high who will be joining us! Yikes! We are a little nervous about blending everyone together, but thanks to my friend Nancy C., a German teacher at my school, we decided to do a little bingo game ice breaker.

After we have them play bingo, we will do some “circling questions” to provide personalized comprehensible input and get the kids back in the saddle of listening to Spanish again. Hopefully it will go well…if not, we have 18 weeks to improve!

It means a lot that you want to be a great mentor teacher and make a difference in her learning experience! I will soon be student teaching and know I would definitely appreciate someone like you guiding me along the way. Best of luck! 🙂